Wednesday, March 11, 2009

New Canon 5D Mark II Arrives!

I took receipt of my new 5D Mark II on March 11 and couldn't wait to play with my new toy! After performing an initial sanity test at home (to make sure nothing was obviously wrong with the camera), I put it through its paces on a day trip to the Bisti Badlands in northern New Mexico. My initial impressions were quite positive. I love the big, new LCD screen and also the functionality of the live view feature for situations that allow me to really take my time to set up a shot. And man...the file sizes generated by this puppy are huge! Fortunately, my PC has enough horsepower to process them without much noticeable difference from my old 5D files. I can see needing to add another hard drive in the near future though!



The image quality of the files produced by this camera is nothing short of outstanding...at least with my newly calibrated Canon 24-70 and 70-300 lenses. The 17-40 suffers a bit, but I knew that would be the case so it's no surprise. Someday, I wish Canon would refresh the design on that lens so it could match the resolving power of the new high megapixel cameras they're producing...even if it means they have to raise the price a bit. I ain't holding my breath that it'll happen too soon though! I hope to post more insights into the camera once I've used it more.